1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to information handling systems and more particularly to a method and apparatus to secure contents on a consumer virtual appliance.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Consumer electronics devices continue to mature to include consumer electronics type information handling systems. Consumer electronics type information handling systems enable content migration from a media information handling system to a living room as well as enabling televisions for broadband. One example of such a consumer electronics type information handling system includes a digital media adapter (DMA) functionality using software such as the Microsoft extender technology software.
Other issues relating to consumer electronics type information handling systems include limited adoption due to high set up costs and customer awareness. Often known solutions lack flexibility in terms of controlling software and hardware distribution. Often known solutions do not offer personalization.
Attempting to address these issues via known information handling system platforms can also present challenges. For example, known information handling system platforms generally use well-defined development evolution based upon standard architectures. Also within known information handling system platforms, extensibility for added features is usually enabled using add in network interface controllers and controllers within predefined expansion slots such as PCIe slots. Other expansion may be accomplished via embedded controller for storage and multimedia playback devices. Such platforms have often include well defined end user models for Internet access, email and office type applications as well as the inability to provide a customer with a secure environment to plug in certain desired services or applications.
One such solution is providing virtualization enabled consumer electronics devices. It would be desirable to provide virtualization enabled consumer electronics devices with a plurality of features. For example, it is desirable to ensure security of the content of the virtualization enabled consumer electronics device, which could be an issue should the virtual appliance device be lost or stolen. Also for example, it is desirable to facilitate customer authentication of the virtualization enabled consumer electronics device for use with a host environment such as when the virtualization enabled consumer electronics devices is used with a host which is different from the customer's host. Also for example it is desirable to facilitate re-provisioning a virtual appliance device. Also for example, it is desirable to allow a service provider to provision a virtual appliance device to enable services for which the customer paid.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a secure easily manageable and expandable array of consumer electronics based functions to consumers with limited or no information technology (IT) capabilities.